Nature and scope of medical social work in healthcare setting in Pakistan

Abstract

The Social Work discipline emerged in the earlier 20th century globally and in 1953 in Pakistan. Medical Social Work, as a branch of Social Work, deals with non-medical factors affecting diseases. As the needs of a sick person are hardly ever simple, rather these are complicated and multifarious, requiring several kinds of assistance, medical social work, in addition to medicines, is a way to deal with them. Medical social workers, as part of multidisciplinary teams, are well equipped to deal with the multidimensional issues of the patients. However, this in-depth literature review exposed that in Pakistan, Medical Social Work is still vague in terms of skills and services required and is struggling to achieve professional status. The major challenge to the profession is its integration with healthcare services. The role of social workers in healthcare setting is very limited, and they are involved merely in disbursement of free medicines out of charity funds. In Pakistan, neither the Social Work discipline has been given a chance to expand, nor its available services are made effective enough to be considered essential in healthcare.